The Brightest Fell

by Nupur Chowdhury

  “Oh, my poor boy. I promise I’ll take them off just as soon as you’ve answered a few questions for me.”

  Fasih said nothing, simply stared down at the manacles around his wrists, absently biting his lip. “I...I’ll try but–” he jerked on the chain, causing the manacles to dig into the delicate skin on the inside of wrists, drawing blood.

  “Yes, yes,” Rinisa said encouragingly, using an embroidered handkerchief to blot out the blood. “That’s all you have to do. Try. Try really hard for me, okay Jehan? Where’s the latest Amven prototype being stored? One of the QRI labs?”

  Fasih frowned, then tipped his head back to gaze at the ceiling. “I...no.”

  “Okay, that’s progress.” Rinisa smiled, her voice soft and comforting. “An external government facility, then? Or has the security contract been sold to some private body?”

  Fasih lowered his gaze, frowning thoughtfully at the manacles once again. The fidgeting had gotten worse. “I’m not...I can’t–” He jerked on the chain one more time, his tone plaintive. “I can’t concentrate.”

  Maganti snarled, his eyes alight with barely restrained fury. “Take those fucking chains off him,” he snapped through gritted teeth. “We’ll never get any information, at this rate.”

  Rinisa sighed. “Patience, my dear–”

  “Damn your patience!” the president bellowed. “You think I don’t know you’re getting a kick out of watching him like this, chained and helpless at your feet? I’ve no problem with you playing your games, Rinisa, but if you so much as think about jeopardizing the plan–”

  “I’m jeopardizing it?” she whirled around, her tone icy. “I’ve brought you Jehan-fucking-Fasih on a silver platter and this is how you repay me?”

  “He’s no use to me if he won’t talk,” Maganti retorted. “And he won’t talk as long as he’s in those damned chains. He looks like a cornered animal, ready to claw his own skin off. Surely, the drug’s taken effect by now–”

  “Oh, it’s taken effect, alright.” Rinisa grinned, dragging a finger lightly over the side of Fasih’s face. “He’s good and pliant.”

  “So he won’t try to run if we take the chains off him?”

  She laughed. “He won’t try to run if we hold a knife to his throat and order him to lean into it. Not for nothing they call it a miracle drug.”

  Rinisa caressed the golden chain around her throat contemplatively.

  After a few moments of absentminded fiddling, the locket was on the palm of her hand. She uncapped it, then pressed the gleaming metal head to a small, concealed socket at the juncture where the manacles met the chain.

  The manacles around Fasih’s wrists clicked open and dropped to the floor. Rubbing at the reddened skin, he sighed, content.

  “Now that that’s over,” Maganti began, impatient. “Back to the questions. If the latest prototype isn’t being stored at the QRI, then we’re left with government facilities or a top-notch private security agency–”

  “Or a bank,” interjected Rinisa. Fasih gasped, causing her to break into a triumphant grin. “I’m right, aren’t I? A bank vault, that’s where it is.”

  “Is that true?” Maganti asked, his flinty eyes boring into Jehan.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Fasih nodded.

  “A bank in Qayit?” Maganti prompted, taking a step closer.

  Fasih shrank back, but nodded again. “It’s – uh – the United Development Bank…” He bit his lip, gazing around dazedly.

  “Yeah? Which branch?” Maganti demanded.

  “I…uh,” Fasih stammered, trying to push himself to his feet. “I’m not…I don’t–” He swayed slightly, pressing his shoulder against the wall for support.

  “What the–” Maganti started forward, but Rinisa held up a hand, wordlessly urging him to step back.

  “He’s confused,” she said, turning to the president with a frown. “Dazed. Let him get his bearings. Do you want him spouting nonsense just because we forced him to give us an answer before he could gather his thoughts?”

  Slowly, Fasih pushed himself to his feet and took a hesitant step forward. The manacles around his ankles clanked and rattled, the chains screeching. Eyes wide, he lurched forward, then stumbled and swayed sideways until his back was inches away from Abhijat’s face.

  Taking his cue, Abhijat slipped the broken buckle-pin between his fingers and drove it as hard as he could into the small of Fasih’s back, pushing him away.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he snarled, slamming the smaller man hard against the wall for good measure.

  Fasih uttered an aborted cry of pain and shrank away from Abhijat.

  Before he had a chance to look at Fasih’s face, Maganti surged forward and kicked Abhijat in the gut. The pain burned through his thoughts, forcing him to curl in on himself, a whimper escaping his lips. His vision swam, and Abhijat scrunched his eyes shut, the darkness a welcome relief.

  Above him, he heard a sudden shriek, followed by a brief scuffle, and then Fasih was pressing a smooth, rectangular object into his hand.

  He forced himself to peel his watering eyes open, only to see Fasih get thrown against the wall by an enraged Maganti. At the president’s feet lay Rinisa, a needle sticking out of her neck, the plunger of the syringe pushed all the way in.

  She really had gotten a taste of her own medicine. Or perhaps, to be more accurate, of Fasih’s medicine. Dazed and nauseated, Abhijat burst out laughing.

  Ignoring the ropes cutting into her wrists, Rito lurched forward to catch the flash drive Abhijat threw at her. She arms and legs tied, she crawled over to Milli with some difficulty and undid the shackles around her limbs. Once freed, Milli used the sharp edges of the manacles to hack through the ropes around Rito’s hands and feet within minutes.

  Rito turned to see her brother insert himself between Maganti and Jehan, trying to pry the president’s fingers off Fasih’s neck.

  The latter was gasping for air, his face white.

  The guards at the door had raised their guns and taken aim at Abhijat. As the trio grappled with each other near the back, either Maganti or Jehan kept getting in the way, preventing them from getting a clean shot.

  With the men distracted, Rito inched towards the still-open briefcase, her heart in her mouth.

  Milli screamed, drawing the guards’ attention momentarily away from the others.

  Rito grinned, vowing to kiss her as soon as this was over. She reached out and grabbed the first syringe she could get her hands on. Holding it like a weapon, the needle held outwards like the blade of a knife, she grabbed the briefcase with her other hand and launched herself at the guards.

  Before they could drag their attention away from the fighting men and the girl bawling at the top of her lungs, Rito had stabbed one of them with the syringe, pushing the plunger as far in as it would go.

  Even before the first man had gone down, she swung the briefcase at the other’s head. The metal connected with the man’s skull with a resounding thud, and he staggered backwards, his eyes rolling back in his head.

  “Abhijat!” she called, grabbing one of their guns and holding it up triumphantly.

  Abhijat turned, and in the same moment, Maganti shouted something in Maralanese.

  The guard whom Rito had injected with God only knew what drug, lurched into a sitting position, grabbed his gun with shaking hands and threw it at the president.

  Catching the weapon with one hand, Maganti whirled around and pushed Abhijat into the wall with the other, the muzzle of the gun pressed to his head.

  “Nobody move,” Maganti roared, holding the gun to Abhijat’s head. His voice shook with fury.

  Rito froze. She could feel Milli go still beside her. Across the room, Jehan stood pressed against a wall, barely breathing.

  “To the wall,” Maganti snapped brusquely, raising one hand to point at the wall opposite the door. “All of you, stand with your backs against the wall, or he dies. Now!”

  They rushed to
obey. Within minutes, all three of them were on one side of the room, their backs pressed to the cold, concrete wall. The door opposite them seemed miles away, rather than a few feet across.

  Rito closed her eyes, forcing herself to stop hyperventilating. This wasn’t over yet. There was a way; she just needed to find it.

  Her brother’s life was on the line. There had to be a way.

  Someone groaned.

  Rito’s eyes flew open. Moving her head as little as possible, she scanned the room. The sound was barely audible, but it was there.

  Another broken moan floated to her ears, and Rito finally realized it was coming from somewhere underneath.

  “Gri-go…ri,” Rinisa rasped from a shadowy corner of the floor, close to Rito’s feet.

  Her voice was too soft to be heard by Maganti, who was shouting something into Abhijat’s ear across the room. But Rito could see that Rinisa was trying to sit up, still moaning quietly. The needle sticking out of her neck bobbed bizarrely up and down with her every move.

  Amven. Rito cursed under her breath. Fasih had shot her up with his goddamned drug before she went down.

  Unthinkingly, Rito clicked her tongue, the way she would when summoning a stray dog. Rinisa stilled, then looked around dazedly until her eyes landed on Rito.

  The woman who had threatened her and her family more times than she could count, now gazed at her with wide, helpless eyes.

  Resisting the urge to kick Rinisa in her stupid face, Rito leaned slightly sideways, bringing her mouth as close to Rinisa’s ear as she dared.

  Too much movement one way or the other, and she’d draw Maganti’s attention. And this was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to miss. If she did, she was pretty sure none of them would get out of here alive.

  If only she could order Rinisa to punch her beloved Grigori in the face.

  But Rito remembered what Jehan had told her time and time again, ever since they’d started working together: Amven couldn’t be used for violence.

  No one under the influence of the drug would ever knowingly hurt another person. That had been the entire point of Amven, the way Jehan had first envisioned it. Back when he’d still believed you could drug humanity into being decent to one another…into peace, tolerance, and benevolence.

  Well, look where that’d gotten them.

  Gathering every last drop of courage she could muster, Rito leaned a little further in and hissed at Rinisa:

  “Go kiss him. Kiss Grigori, now!”

  President Maganti loomed over him, pressing a semi-automatic rifle to his head. His sister stood frozen a few feet away, along with Milli and Fasih, their backs pressed to the cold, hard wall.

  He wanted to scream at them to run. He was the one who’d gotten them into this mess in the first place. And now, they were all going to die just because they refused to leave him behind.

  But he knew the futility of it. Rito would never leave without him, and he had a feeling Milli wouldn’t go anywhere without his sister.

  Fasih, for his part, didn’t have the survival instinct of a rock.

  Abhijat closed his eyes. Maganti was shouting something in his ear, but he couldn’t bring himself to pay attention. He had to do something. He had to save them.

  He couldn’t bear the thought of standing here and watching them die.

  If he screamed, or struggled, or did something – anything – that’d make Maganti shoot him, the others could try and escape. With him dead, there’d be nothing holding them back.

  It was far from a fool-proof plan, but it was better than nothing. Better than watching them sacrifice themselves to buy him a few extra minutes of life.

  Sucking in a deep breath, his hands clenching into fists, Abhijat prepared to attack. He was a skilled fighter, but there was no way he was going to win barehanded against a man holding a semi-automatic. Still, if he could only give them a little headway...

  Out of the corner of his eye, Abhijat watched Rinisa stagger to her feet, inches away from Rito.

  His lips parted in surprise. Moments from letting out a warning cry, he saw his sister give the minutest shake of her head, her eyes boring straight into his.

  He clamped his mouth shut, forcing himself to look away. Maganti, who was still facing Abhijat and screaming in his face, seemed to have noticed nothing.

  A second passed. And as much of a cliché as it was, the world slowed down around Abhijat.

  Then, Rinisa was flying towards them, her arms outstretched.

  She threw both hands around Maganti’s neck, forcing him to turn around before smashing her lips into his.

  Taken aback, Maganti growled, his fingers clenching. A shot rang out inches from Abhijat’s face.

  Unthinkingly, Abhijat launched himself at Maganti. All three of them went down in a heap, their limbs flailing.

  After a moment’s struggle, Abhijat overpowered Maganti – who still had Rinisa clinging to him – and wrenched the rifle from his grip.

  He sprang to his feet. His hands shaking, Abhijat pointed the gun at the man still lying at his feet on the floor.

  Maganti snarled, glaring up at Abhijat, even as Rinisa clung to him, sniffling. “Get away from me, you bitch.” He pushed her away from himself. She clutched at him, her eyes bright and desperate.

  He kicked her in the stomach, sending her crashing against the wall, her lips parted in a silent scream.

  “Stop it!” Abhijat roared, pressing the mouth of the gun to Maganti’s forehead. “If you so much as move a pinkie without my permission again, I will shoot.”

  He kneeled, hauling the president to his feet by the scruff of his neck. “Do not do anything stupid,” Abhijat growled, driving the muzzle into his back. “I’m a trained soldier, remember? I won’t misfire. Give me one reason, make the slightest move, and you’ll have twenty bullets inside you within the fraction of a second.”

  “If you kill me–”

  “What? They’ll put me in front of a firing squad?” he laughed. It sounded manic even to his own ears. “You think that scares me, Maganti? Do you think I was expecting a medal after I delivered Fasih to you and Rinisa?

  “I was willing to risk execution on the mere suspicion that Fasih might harm my family. You think I won’t shoot you after you had my sister chained to a wall like an animal? Are you really willing to bet your life on that theory?”

  The guard whom Rito had bludgeoned with Rinisa’s briefcase stirred, groaning. He felt blindly around the floor, until his fingers closed around the rifle which Rito had dropped moments ago.

  “Tell him to stay still,” Abhijat snarled, driving the rifle into Maganti’s back until the president stumbled forward with a cry of pain. “Tell him to stay still and drop the gun!”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Maganti complied.

  Letting go of the weapon, the barely conscious guard squinted dazedly and held up his hands.

  “Get out,” Abhijat shouted at the others, who had by now inched away from the wall and were approaching him with hesitant steps. “Get out of here, and stay a few steps ahead of me. We need to get outside, to the car.”

  One step at a time, they made their way out of the holding room and to the main entrance of the warehouse. Rito and the others walked ahead and Abhijat followed them, his gun trained on Maganti. The few guards they met on the way were ordered by the president to stand down.

  Soon, they were at the main gates. The car in which he and Fasih had arrived was visible, lying abandoned less than forty feet away.

  With a flick of his finger, Abhijat signaled Rito to get everyone to the vehicle.

  Rito nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. She herded the other two out of the warehouse. Within seconds, all three of them had darted across the open stretch of land to the car.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Abhijat prodded Maganti, forcing him to walk ahead as he left the warehouse behind and moved towards his friends.

  The piercing sound of a gunshot rent the air moments before he reached the v
ehicle.

  Abhijat spun around, trying to hold on to Maganti even as he pointed his gun at the guard shooting at them from the second floor of the warehouse. He pulled the trigger, letting loose a volley of bullets.

  Maganti pulled free, pushing Abhijat away and running into the warehouse even as the guard returned fire from his hiding place on the second floor.

  “Drive,” Abhijat screamed at Rito. He jumped into the back of the car after Fasih. Rito pulled Milli in with her as she leapt into the driver’s seat moments later.

  The engine revved. A few bullets dented the exterior, even as the vehicle lurched forward, gathering speed with every passing second. Soon, the sound of gunfire had faded into the background.

  Abhijat leaned out of the back window, firing one more shot at the rapidly receding warehouse.

  He wouldn’t rest until this was over.

  The car lurched dangerously, swaying from side to side.

  Gripping the steering wheel, her heart thundering, Rito wondered if one of the tires had been hit.

  She swerved to avoid an oncoming truck, muttering obscenities under her breath.

  Her mother’s stern admonishment buzzed in the back of her head, and for the first time in hours, Rito laughed.

  “I’m glad somebody’s getting a kick out of this,” Fasih intoned from the backseat.

  Rito rolled her eyes. “And I’m glad Maganti didn’t manage to kill us. Spending the afterlife with you would’ve been so annoying.”

  “Something you wouldn’t have had to worry about if you hadn’t come barging into that dank hellhole with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.”

  “It’s not her fault,” Milli piped up, leaning in to touch her face, as if she couldn’t quite believe that Rito was real. “She came for me. Because I sent her that picture. God, Rito, you shouldn’t have. You could’ve been killed.”

  “As could all of you. How is my death so much worse than any of yours? You really thought I’d sit back and do nothing, once I knew? Besides, you’re one to talk.” She grabbed a crumpled pamphlet from the dashboard and threw it at the two men in the back. “I called both of you as soon as I had Milli’s location. But of course, you morons were too busy getting kidnapped and tied up by darling Rinisa.”